Through the Looking Glass: Is banning firearms the right answer?

August 3, 2012

By Tracy Steffenson

In the aftermath of the horrifying movie theater shooting that recently took place in Aurora, CO. that left 12 dead and 59 wounded; it is easy to see why certain groups of people would be yelling that we need stricter gun control laws or a complete ban on firearms all together. The thing those people donâ€™t seem to understand is if you take away our 2nd Amendment rights, you take away our right to protect ourselves and our families.

Guns are man made. They are inanimate objects that cannot be classified as either good nor bad because they are neither. The way the gun is used is what determines whether it is good or bad and the way it is used it determined by itsâ€™ human owner.

If we limit the availability of firearms to our upstanding citizens, or take them away all together, we might end up living in a world of fear and our lives might very well be dictated by the â€śbad guys.â€ť Donâ€™t agree? Thatâ€™s fine, but look at other areas in the world that have already tried this, and in my opinion, failed to keep their citizens safe.

Some of the countries that have highly restricted gun control laws include: Mexico, the United Kingdom, China, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, France, North Korea, most of Africa, Australia and so forth. What do most of these areas have in common? Citizens who canâ€™t protect themselves and have been over ran by Cartels, Terrorist groups, and criminals. In many of these countries you must provide a genuine reason for wanting to own a gun, like being in law enforcement or the military, because for your own personal protection isnâ€™t a good enough reason.

Restricting or banning firearms does two things. #1: Makes it harder for upstanding, law abiding citizens to protect themselves, their families and their property and #2: It makes the criminals the only ones with firearms because they are the only ones who donâ€™t care about the repercussions of getting caught in the first place.

To satisfy my own curiosity I did a little research and found some information that I found very interesting, but not surprising. It seems that there is less violence in countries that REQUIRE people to own and learn how to use guns. Well this stands to reason if you ask me. If all the criminals knew that the citizens owned and could efficiently operate firearms, why would they try to break-in to your house or jack your vehicle? Odds are, most wouldnâ€™t.

To give you more specific examples, Switzerland requires that all male citizens learn how to use and must keep fully-automatic firearms at home in case of a call-up to the militia. For those serving or of age to serve, the military also supplies a case of ammunition for the individual to keep at their home. Statistics indicate that Switzerland has little violence attributed to firearms. In Norway they also have a large number of civilian gun owners and an extremely low rate of crimes which involve firearms. Do you think there is a connection???

In my opinion, if you take away firearms you take away our ability to protect ourselves from those who wish to do us harm with a firearm. Do the laws need to be stricter? Yes and no. Most states have strict enough laws in place and just need to focus on enforcing them. I also feel that in states where it isnâ€™t required, like Oklahoma, a waiting period should be applied to all gun purchases and a complete background check, including mental stability, should also be done before allowing an individual to own a firearm.

If more people took the stance that they will own guns, will know how to correctly use them and will stand up for their rights, family and property, we could eliminate a lot of unneeded deaths. What would have happened if someone in the theater would have had a concealed firearm on their person when the shooting started? Would as many people been harmed and killed?

We need to own guns and know how to use them. I am not saying we all need to own guns and go around shooting people that piss us off, but we do need to know how to use them to protect ourselves, and not just the men but women, and children over a certain age, should be taught as well. That is just my opinion though. Do you have one?